Czech coalition unsettled as questions hover over Stork’s Nest

Finance Minister and ANO party leader Andrej Babiš is in hot water over
the suspect drawing of EU funds for his Stork’s Nest farm and conference
centre. Mr Babiš maintains that that the application for the funds was
made by the farm’s previous owner, whom he refuses to name. An
extraordinary session of Parliament called by the opposition is now likely
to be held on the matter next Wednesday.

Stork’s Nest, photo: ČT24
According to information from the server Neovlivni.cz last week, Czech
authorities have found discrepancies in the drawing of funds for the
Stork’s Nest farm of finance minister Andrej Babiš and his giant
agro-chemical
group Agrofert, with fines of six million crowns at one stage imposed.
According to the news site, the farm belonged to Agrofert until 2008, when
its shares were transferred to bearer shares in order to claim EU
subsidies
of around 50 million crowns, but afterwards returned to Mr Babiš’s firm
again. The circumstances of the EU funds awarded to the project are now
being investigated by the European Anti-Fraud Office.

Erik Best, photo: Petra Čechová, Czech Radio
Political analyst Erik Best says it is too early to say whether the
scandal is going to have a real impact on Mr Babiš’s political career.
At the same time he says it is probably the first issue connected with Mr
Babiš that has raised such sustained high level questions about his
reputation and former dealings:

“There are really four key aspects to this. The first is whether
the
law was broken and although journalists generally tend to say that it has
been broken, the prosecutor hasn’t said anything. So I think we need to
be a bit hesitant in saying that something illegal has happened.

Andrej Babiš, photo: ČT24“Number two, Mr Babiš is a politician, and for politicians
different
rules apply, so it might not be so important as to whether the law was
technically broken.

“The third aspect is the public. Mr Babiš has an amazing ability
to get
away with things, more so than other politicians in the Czech Republic and
certainly far more than in Western countries. I think this time it is a
bit
more visible that the public is becoming upset about what is going
on.

“And the fourth aspect is the coalition. He has got two coalition
partners and in the past they have overlooked his conflicts of interest,
but there are signs now that the Social Democrats are starting to be a
little more weary of what’s going on. But again it is too early to say
whether this is going to have a real impact on Mr Babiš political
career.”

Prior to the scandal, Babiš raised the question of calling early
elections, presumably by his party quitting the current coalition. But Mr
Best warns that although ANO has been a long-time leader in the opinion
polls, the latest turn of events could make it too risky for Andrej Babiš
to force an early election, initially tipped for next summer.